[AgentZero]

As I was saying....


It took another seven hours of travel before they reached the jump beacon for the Victoria System, and Alice brought them smoothly in line with the Perth Nine beacon before executing a perfect null-space transit back into normal space. Twelve seconds after they made transit, the Daedalus rocked violently.
“Not my fault!” Alice cried.
“I know,” Kagan growled. “Someone’s shooting at us.”
“Oh, frack,” she replied dejectedly. “Control is yours.”
Kagan slid his hands over the control panel that moved smoothly into place as Alice transferred ship control over to him. The tactical plot showed a small, destroyer-class ship right behind them. From its approach vector, it must have exited null-space along with him. In fact, he realized grimly, it’d probably been shadowing them all the way from Kolis Station. The ship rocked again and this time the sound of rattling deck plates was accompanied by the friendly chirp of an incoming transmission. The com screen came to life at Kagan’s command to reveal the smug face of Fourteen staring back at him.
“Now, Mr. Kagan,” he said, an almost undetectable hint of rage colouring his tone. “I’m giving you one last chance to play nice. If you do not cut your speed, drop your shields and turn the girl over to me, I am perfectly willing to cut my loses and blow you out of the sky.”
“Now, now, Mr. Fourteen,” Kagan replied in exactly the same tone, but humour rather than rage coloured his tone. “I’m sure even if your instructions aren’t particular to whether dead or alive, they do at least want her in more or less one piece. I’m sure your superiors would be none too pleased if you blew your objective into tiny little pieces.”
“Actually, Mr. Kagan,” Fourteen replied tersely. “My instructions do provide for such an act if it is deemed impossible to recover her by other means. And since you so handily dispatched my retrieval team, I really don’t have any other means.”
Kagan thought about this for a long moment, then finally nodded slowly. “Alright,” he said. “Coming about and cutting engines.”
“No!” Alice shouted jumping out of her chair. “I won’t-“
“Quiet!” Kagan snapped at her. “Sit back down!”
He’d never raised his voice to her before and the shock of it hit her like a blow and she dropped back into her seat in surprise. She opened her mouth to protest again, but closed it resignedly when she recognized the expression on Kagan’s face.
“Velocity at zero, Perth Nine relative,” he informed Fourteen. “Preparing to cycle down shield layers.”
“Good, Mr. Kagan,” the other replied. “I must say you are very lucky that I’m a patient man. Most men in my position wouldn’t have given you a second chance.”
“Aye, Mr. Fourteen,” Kagan agreed. “You are indeed a patient man, and I very much appreciate that patience.”
“Thank you, Mr. Kagan,” Fourteen replied, not noticing the dangerous edge in Kagan’s voice.
“I, on the other hand, am not a patient man,” the Eireannman continued and the dangerous edge was now very obvious. “And I ran out of patience for playing nice a long time ago!” He slammed his hand down on a control lever, and the bridge suddenly filled with noise. First the high pitch whine of backup power plants coming online, then almost simultaneously the clunk of some large things detaching from the hull. This was swiftly followed by the suffering moan of hydraulics being forced to work at higher than normal speed, which was ended by the clang of some large things locking into place. No sooner had silence begun to settle on the bridge of the Daedalus than it was interrupted by a new noise, this time a screeching noise from the com system as Fourteen’s ship reacted noisily to the targeting scanners that were suddenly sweeping it. He looked out at Kagan with an expression of shock, his face bathed in red emergency lights.
“Surprise,” Kagan grinned evilly.
“There was nothing in the brief about this,” Fourteen mumbled softly.
“Fourteen,” Kagan said in an almost friendly tone. “Git te hell outta me sky.”
He depressed a single button, and eight military grade beam cannons fired as one, all but obliterating Fourteen and his ship from existence. “Now then, my love,” Kagan continued. “Would you be a dear and plot a best-time course for Perth Nine?”
“Yessir, right away, sir,” she replied merrily, and responding to her nimble fingers, the Daedalus swung back around and accelerated towards the Perth Nine shipping station.

I know, kinda a short installment this time, but it's more finishing off the last installment than starting a new one. I only really have time to write when my sister's in a class, which is only an hour at a time, hence I can't be sure when the next installment will be ready.